


The Darkness Gets Bigger

by Pippin



Series: The Dark I Know Well [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Slow Burn, canon typical alcohol and drug use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-08 19:48:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12871743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pippin/pseuds/Pippin
Summary: Neil Josten is, on paper, a former striker for the Mountain Ridge Miners and the new striker sub for the Palmetto State Foxes, coming from a life hiding with his mother from an abusive father.  But Neil isn't who he claims to be, and the truth is going to be more dangerous for the Foxes than they could imagine.





	1. Chapter 1

Neil Josten stepped out of the airport and was immediately assaulted by the oppressive South Carolina heat and humidity.  He hoisted his exy bag up on his shoulder, set his suitcases down, and looked around.  Coach Wymack had promised him he’d send someone to pick him up from the airport, but Neil wasn’t sure who to be looking for, let alone that he’d even recognize them.  He’d done his research on the Foxes, but pictures didn’t always do justice to people.

Somehow, though, spotting his ride wasn’t hard.  It was one of the twins, Aaron by the lack of manic smile.  Neil headed over to him.

Aaron didn’t greet him, just led Neil to an expensive car and opening a side door to let Neil load in his luggage.  While Neil did that, Aaron lit a cigarette and waited, taking deep drags.

Once Neil got into the car, Aaron spared him a fleeting sidelong glance.  “Neil Josten.”  The name sounded stilted on his tongue, as if he knew it was a cover.  “Here for the summer, hm?”

“Yes,” Neil replied, not wanting to engage in any more conversation than he had to.  He wasn’t here to make friends.

_Don’t get attached, N—_

“That makes five of us, but word is you’re going to stay with Coach.”

“Kevin stays on campus?” 

“Where the court is, Kevin is.  He can’t exist without it.” 

Neil filed that information away for later use and ran through what other details he knew about Kevin now that he had left Edgar Allen.

_Our little birdie flew the nest._

“I didn’t think it was the court Kevin was staying for,” Neil said, just to see how Aaron would react to the mention of the protection his twin was affording Kevin.  The answer was, he didn’t, just paid the lady at the booth and recklessly merged into traffic.  After a moment, he glanced over at Neil again.

“What is it about you that had Coach so interested in picking up a nobody striker from a nowhere town in Maryland?”

Neil shrugged.  “I did pretty okay in high school.  And then Mum and I were hiding from my abusive dad.  I guess something in that spoke to him.”

“Hiding, and yet you’re going to Class I exy.  There’s nowhere to hide on this court.”

“I guess it’s worth it.”

Aaron snorted in derision but didn’t say anything more, just turned into a parking lot in front of an apartment building.  He went to meet the other members of the Foxes standing on the sidewalk while Neil retrieved his bags.  When he looked up, he was faced with both twins, a man he assumed was their cousin Nicholas, and Kevin Day.

Neil’s stomach did a brief flip, but Kevin hardly looked interested in Neil, which meant he didn’t recognize him, which was nothing short of a small miracle.  In fact, Nicholas was the only person at all who looked interested in Neil.  His smile, unlike that of his cousin, was sincere, and he offered Neil one of his hands, taking one of Neil’s suitcases with the other.

“Nicky,” he introduced himself, hoisting the suitcase before wrinkling his nose and handing it off to Andrew.  “You’ve at least heard of the others, right?  Aaron, Andrew, Kevin?  Coach was supposed to be here to let you in, but he had to head up to the stadium real quick.  The ERC called him, probably with more BS about how we haven’t publicized our sub yet.  In the meantime you’re stuck with us, but we’ve got Coach’s keys.”

Nicky led Neil and the others up to Coach Wymack’s apartment, then stepped aside to let Aaron get the door.  Aaron had to dig the keys out of his pocket, but he apparently wasn’t sure which pocket he’d put them in, which led to him digging around briefly.  Neil automatically tracked the movement, but, as he did, realized that Aaron’s pockets were too flat to contain the pack of cigarettes Neil was sure he’d seen the backliner put in them.  Which meant that either Neil was slipping or there was a trick afoot.

The cousins and Kevin went to do their thing, but Neil ignored them in favor of looking around briefly.  The apartment was small but packed, lots of things on exy and the team as a whole.

The cousins were speaking softly in German, one of four languages Neil spoke.  He listened in while pretending to be sorting out the little bit of unpacking he could do.  Nicky was accusing Andrew of having said something to spook Neil, which was ridiculous.  Neil hadn’t met Andrew before arriving at the apartment complex.  Unless…

He snuck a careful look at the twins.  Andrew had a jacket on over his black shirt, but other than that he and Aaron were dressed identically.  Neil’s gaze dropped to Andrew’s hips, and, sure enough, he could see the outline of a pack of cigarette pressing against his pocket.  Interesting.  Andrew was supposed to be on court-ordered medication that supposedly kept him too far up, too manic, to be a threat after he had nearly killed four men for attacking Nicky.

Kevin reappeared with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other, and Nicky shot him a quick glance but didn’t say anything.

“Ready, Neil?” he asked instead.  “We should probably beat it before Coach shows up.”

“Why?  Is this a robbery in progress?”  Neil gestured to the bottles in Kevin’s hands to clarify his point.

“Maybe it is.  Will you tell Coach on us?” Andrew’s tone was amused, but Neil wasn’t buying it.  “So much for being a team player.  I guess you really are a Fox.”

Neil tipped his head, considering his next words carefully.  “No, but I would ask him why you’re not medicated.”

Everyone bar Andrew looked surprised.  Instead of surprise, Andrew’s expression went blank, a far more natural look for him than the grin he sported otherwise.

“That sounds like an accusation, but I didn’t lie to you.”

“Omission is the easiest way to lie,” Neil said.  He bore the scars of that particular truth.  “You could have corrected me.”

Andrew shrugged, apparently uncaring that Neil had figured out his little game.  “Could have, didn’t.  Figure it out for yourself.”

“I did,” Neil said, making sure his back was to Kevin and then letting his razor grin slide over his face.  “Better luck next time.”

“Oh,” Andrew said, eyes sharp as he examined Neil’s expression.  “Oh, you might actually turn out to be interesting.  For a little while, at least.  I don’t think the amusement will last.  It never does.”

“Don’t mess with me.”

“Or what?”

Neil felt the pieces of his true self slide into place, but then the door rattled as someone went to unlock it and he carefully hid them away, deadly grin leaving even as Andrew’s vacant smile returned, a trade.  Both wore opposite masks—Andrew’s grin was the lie, while Neil’s was the truth.

“Hi Coach,” Andrew called, voice bright once again.

“Do you have any idea how much I hate coming home and finding you in my apartment?”

Neil couldn’t see Coach Wymack, but that was okay.  He was still fitting himself back into the particular lie that was Neil Josten and appreciated the extra few moments to make sure that his disguise was firmly in place.

“I didn’t break anything this time,” Andrew promised as he stepped out of sight, presumably to join his coach.

“I’ll believe that after I’ve checked everything I own,” Wymack replied as he stepped into Neil’s line of sight.  He hardly looked a threat, but Neil had done his research.  He knew this man would fight tooth and nail to protect his team.

_There are no allies.  There are only those who are threats and those who are not.  Neutralize anyone you must._

Wymack looked resigned to the announcement that Neil was being taken along with the others, but let them take him after he had handed over keys to both the apartment and the court, a level of trust that raised Neil’s hackles somewhat.  This man had no idea who Neil was or what his real task was, yet he was allowing him unhindered access to areas that were practically sacred and certainly meant to be safe of people like Neil himself.

After a moment of hesitation, a dangerous few breaths Neil should have never allowed himself, he tucked the keys away.  With any luck, Wymack would believe that the slight hitch in the fluidity of Neil’s adjustment to his new living situation was due to the past detailed in his file.  Most of it was lies, but that wasn’t for Neil to concern himself about.  What mattered was that Wymack and the team believed it.  Neil didn’t need them finding out his true identity.

Luckily, he seemed to do well enough at the battered child act, or, at least, well enough for Wymack to buy it. 

Neil followed the others out of the apartment, only to be cornered by Andrew in the elevator.  His family looked on uncaringly and Kevin seemed far more concerned with his vodka than with Neil.  Small miracles, Neil would have thought, had he believed in miracles.

“How nice to meet you, Neil,” Andrew said slowly, his small body pinning Neil against the side of the elevator.  “It will be a while before we see each other again.”

“Somehow I don’t think I’m that lucky,” Neil said, tone flippant as he worked out a way to fell Andrew if he needed.

“Like this,” Andrew said, gesturing between their faces.  “It will have to wait until June.  Abby threatened to revoke our stadium rights for the summer if we break you sooner than that.  Can’t have that, can we?  Kevin would cry.  No worries.  We’ll wait until everyone’s here and Abby has too many other Foxes to worry about.  Then we’ll throw you a welcome party you won’t forget.”

“You need to rethink your persuasion techniques,” Neil said.  “They suck.”

Andrew put a hand on Neil’s chest.  “I don’t need to be persuasive.  You’ll just learn to do what I say.” 

Neil exited into the lobby as the elevator doors opened, trying to calm his racing heart.  If Andrew had noticed it he’d have probably chalked it up to no more than Neil being intimidated by the threats, or possibly remembering his past abuse.  He had no reason to think it anything more than that. 

If Neil had his way, Andrew would never know the truth until it was too late.  He was going to be a bit of a problem, but Neil had grown up around violence.  He was prepared to do what he had to. 

But, in the meantime, Neil followed his new teammates out of the apartment building and prepared himself to step onto the Foxes’ court.


	2. Chapter 2

There was so much orange.  Neil, who was used to colors that were either dull or dark, suffered the bright color as a constant assault on his vision as he looked at the building that housed the Foxes' court.

“All the orange grows on you,” Nicky promised with a hand on Neil’s shoulder.  He managed not to flinch, but only just.  Nicky didn’t seem to notice, as he steered Neil down to a locked gate with that same hand.  He gave Neil the code as if it was nothing—he had no reason to trust this newcomer to his team, yet he did anyway.  That easy trust would make Neil’s job easier in the long run.

Nicky got himself off onto a tangent as he explained the code, asking if Neil had a girlfriend, a jump in logic that Neil couldn’t understand the rhyme or reason of.

“Come on, cute face like yours has to have a girlfriend.  Unless you swing my way, of course, in which case please tell me now and save me the trouble of having to figure it out.”

Neil stared at Nicky.  He didn’t have a girlfriend.  He’d always had the danger of attachment thoroughly taught him by both his parents, a fact he’d always found ironic, considering they were married.  Although he was pretty sure that was a different arrangement altogether.  There was no way that members of two different crime families had just happened to come across one another.

Nicky was still looking at Neil, waiting for an answer.  “I don’t swing either way,” Neil said finally.  “Let’s go in.”

“Bullshit.”

“I don’t,” Neil said, an impatient and irate edge in his voice that sounded a hell of a lot like his father.  “Are we going in or not?”

The Foxes’ lounge was a mess, in an organized way.  The photos taped to the three walls not taken up by the entertainment center were a hodgepodge of newspaper clippings, official team and game photographs, and photos that appeared to be taken by the Foxes themselves. 

The photos caused a new concern for Neil—his research had told him that the Foxes were a fractured mess, but the photographs he was looking at showed some level of team unity.  That was going to be a problem.  When groups were not cohesive, it was easy enough to take out one member.  But when there was unity, it was a lot harder.

“Dan, Renee, and Allison,” Nicky said, tapping the girls’ faces in the photograph Neil was looking at.  “Dan’s good people, but she’ll work you to the bone.  Allison’s a catty bitch you should avoid at all costs.  Renee’s a sweetheart.  Be nice to her.”

Neil could hear the implied threat in Nicky’s tone but ignored it.  He could handle just about anything that was thrown at him.  His training was impeccable.  He wasn’t concerned.

Instead of worrying any further, Neil followed Kevin to the court, ready to see the site of his deception.

Neil had been trained in exy alongside everything else as a child, but it had taken a backseat when he had shown a real aptitude for those other things.  He had also trained as a backliner, but that was the position Kevin would remember him in, which meant that when they had started Neil’s backstory, it was better that he switch positions to striker.

Nicky and Aaron led Neil to the locker room and then, once he got dressed, back to the court.

The pair of them were far from the best backliners in NCAA Class I exy, but they were, at the same time, far better than anyone Neil had played against in high school.  When they called a halt Neil, a runner at heart, was panting.  He had a long way to bring his game, but that wasn’t really his concern.  Neil loved exy, he really did, but it wasn’t his future.  He knew exactly what his life held for him, and this was not it.

After Nicky and Aaron were done, Kevin stepped onto the court, locking extremely unhappy with Neil’s performance.  “You’re never going to get there on your own, so give your game to me.”

“Where is ‘there’?”

“If you can’t figure that out there’s no helping you.”

Neil set his jaw and looked back at Kevin, unimpressed.  He was ‘there’ in so many other ways, and Kevin must have seen that in Neil’s eyes, because he covered them with one hand.  Neil held himself stock still.

“Forget the stadium.  Forget the Foxes and your useless high school team and your family.  See it the only way it really matters, where exy is the only road to take.  What do you see?”

Neil almost burst out laughing.  Most of the forgetting Kevin said so offhandedly was so easy.  But he couldn’t forget his family.  He couldn’t see exy as the only road.  Exy wasn’t an option, not even an unmarked dirt path off the road he was on.  Who he was and what he was going to do was dictated by the name he was born with.

“Focus,” Kevin demanded.

Neil pulled away from Kevin and dropped his racquet.  “Take my game,” he said.  It didn’t matter.  He was only here for as long as it took him to get his job done.

“Neil understands,” Kevin said, glaring over at Andrew, who was lying on his back and tossing a ball in the air over and over, a bottle of whiskey in his other hand.  Neil was pretty sure that it was the same whiskey Kevin had taken from Wymack’s apartment earlier.

“Congratulations are in order, I suppose!” Andrew’s voice betrayed his manic state, but the sarcasm there was also betrayed easily enough.  It was clear that Andrew didn’t care at all about exy, which was fine for Neil.

Once Kevin was done with his intimidation or whatever, the trio headed back to the locker rooms.  Neil was pleased to find that showers were single stall, meaning that he didn’t have to do his usual waiting for everyone else to be done.  He bore plenty of scars from his childhood education, none of which he was at all willing to talk about.  He knew that this was the Foxes, that they had to know the ilk, but it was still questions he was to avoid.  Anything that would link him back to his true name, his true background, his true family was dangerous territory that Neil had no wish to step in.  He couldn’t risk fucking over his mission before he’d even really begun.

Neil returned to the locker room after a quick shower, where Aaron and Nicky had rejoined Andrew and Kevin.  It turned out that they were going to Abigail’s for dinner, which Neil tried to get out of—he had a phone call to make—to no avail.

Wymack was already at Abigail’s when the players arrived.  When he saw them, he stabbed a finger at Nicky. 

“Hemmick, get over here and be useful for once in your mangy life.  Table needs setting.”

Nicky pouted dramatically.  “Aww, Coach.  Why do you always have to pick me?  You already started it.  Can’t you finish it?”

“Shut your face and get to work.”  For as gruff as he sounded, that was still one of the nicest orders that Neil had ever heard from an adult male.

“Can’t you two behave when we’ve got a guest?”

Wymack looked at the assembled group in front of him.  “I don’t see any guests.  Neil’s a Fox.  He’s not going to get any special treatment just because it’s his first day.”

There again was that easy acceptance that Neil had seen earlier, and it was reflected in Abigail’s as well as she distributed orders to the others and greeted Neil with a calm air of power.

“David?  Shut up and make sure the vegetables aren’t boiling over.  Kevin, check the bread.  It’s in the oven.  Nicky, table.  Aaron, help him.  Andrew Joseph Minyard, that had better not be what I think it is.”  She went to take the whiskey, but Andrew neatly sidestepped her and then headed down the hall, whiskey still firmly in his hand. 

Instead of following, Abigail turned to face Neil.  “You’d be Neil, then.  I’m Abby.  I’m nurse for the team and temporary landlord to this lot.”

Neil took a brief moment to try and determine how much of a threat Abby would be.  She didn’t look like much, but he also knew better than to underestimate anyone.

Dinner after that was a quiet affair, in the sense of the term that meant that no one was stabbed or started a fight.  Wymack offered Neil a ride home, but he refused.  He needed a run, and, more, he needed to make a call.  He would find his way back to the apartment complex.  He’d found his way to and from worse.

The gentle pounding of his shoes against the pavement was calming, and Neil drew breaths in and out in a steady rhythm synced to the cadence of his tread.  Running was always calming for him.  It was just him and his body, the one thing that he couldn’t lie about.  His past, his looks, his reason for being—all of that was malleable and transient, but he was a runner through and through.

After about a mile and a half, he found what he was looking for—a pay phone, a rarity anymore, outside a gas station but far enough for privacy.  It was probably used for drug trades and prostitution, but that didn’t matter to Neil.  All that mattered was that it couldn’t be traced.

He had memorized the number as a child.  It was a direct line, a number that only those in the inner circle had.  Neil wasn’t sure if even his mother knew it.

“Yes?”

“It’s me.  I’ve met Kevin.  He’ll be easy enough, but there is one concern—Andrew Minyard.”

“Can you handle him?”

“I’ll make it work.”

“Good.  Do it.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know that a lot of this chapter was taken verbatim from the book. As I get further into the plot, that will deviate more.
> 
> The school and town Neil is coming from are real. I needed a small town in Maryland and I have a friend from Frostburg. I'm not good at creating new towns.


End file.
